Area trio love the Tri

By TOM BEHRENS, CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

Published 12:06 am, Thursday, July 21, 2011

Photo: COURTESY DENA SOKOLOW

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Dena Sokolow, Jacqueline Fein, and Carole Penning became friends through training for marathons. Now they compete in triathlons. Pictured from left are Sokolow, Fein and Penning.
Photo credit goes to Dena Sokolow. less

Dena Sokolow, Jacqueline Fein, and Carole Penning became friends through training for marathons. Now they compete in triathlons. Pictured from left are Sokolow, Fein and Penning.
Photo credit goes to Dena ... more

Photo: COURTESY DENA SOKOLOW

Area trio love the Tri

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Triathlon is often described as among the toughest of modern sports, but for three Houston-area athletes, it's their route to health and fitness, and, yes, competition at a surprising age.

Carole Penning, Dena Sokolow and Jacqueline Fein all competed in the 2011 Summer National Senior Games triathlon which started and finished at the Southwyck Lake Park in the Silverlake subdivision in Pearland, June 26.

Fein, who lives in West Houston, says the women first became acquainted while training for marathons. Fein took home a bronze medal for her age group, 55-59 in the Houston Games triathlon, her first Nationals. Previously she had taken home a triathlon gold medal in the Texas State Senior Games held in 2010. To be able to compete in the National Competition, an athlete has to finish in the top four in the state championships.

The 2011 National Senior Games drew competitors from all 50 states, the Veterans Games, the District of Columbia, Canada, Angola, Barbados, Canada, Kuwait, Trinidad, Tobago, Russia and the Virgin Islands. It's estimated that 10,000 athletes came to Houston for the games.

Fein estimates that she has completed 50-60 triathlons in the last seven years.

"Triathlons are challenging, fun," said Fein. "I love the training, the events, the people, everything about them. There is a sense of accomplishment, challenge, and fun. The training adds to your quality of life mentally and physically."

Fein said since this was her first triathlon at the national level in the Senior Games, she didn't know what expect.

"On race day I found the race like any other triathlon, but the atmosphere, the athletes, the race organization was really special. It was very inspiring, she said. "There were people there in their 60-70s. There was a 90-year-old triathlon athlete who completed the whole event. I was standing there when he was transitioning to the run from the cycling part of the race. As he started running, we all cheered him. He picked up his step and we were all cheering for him again, just incredible. One little girl was running around. Someone had written on her t-shirt, 'Go Grandma, Go!' There were some very, very fit people participating; the spirit was just amazing."

The 2011 Summer National Senior Games were Sokolow's first attempt at the National Games. She does both triathlons and marathons.

"I like swimming, biking, running. It just seemed like a good way to keep in shape and maybe not have so much wear and tear on my body," she said.

The National Senior Games triathlon is a sprint triathlon, with shorter distances in each race category. Swimming comes in at under a half mile, bicycling 12 miles and running three miles.

"It was inspiring to see athletes older than I in fantastic shape, enthusiastic about what they were doing," continued Sokolow.

"They're definitely much younger than their chronological age would make people believe, very mentally as well as physically active, competitive, enjoying what they are doing.

"Obviously they have aches and pains but they manage to work through that and succeed."

Penning, also in the 50-54 age class, was nursing a hamstring injury that she had experienced before the Senior Games. She says her finish was not as good as she would have liked. At the 2009 Palo Alto National Senior Games, she finished second and took home a silver medal.

"I really like the sprint triathlons because they are good for cross training," she said. "You don't beat your body up too much. If you have a bad race like I did, you can always go out the next week and do another one, which is pretty much what I did after the National Senior Games."

She finished fourth in her age group in the Jeff and Brede's Intergalactic Sprint Triathlon in Katy where a swimming pool is used for the swimming arm of the race.

Penning says at 44, when she first started triathlons, she didn't own a bike and didn't know how to swim. Now she has completed more than 40 triathlons.

"Anyone can pretty much do a triathlon, especially a Sprint triathlon," she said.

"Each of the three different legs provides opportunity for enjoyment," added Sokolow. "I used to not like the cycling part of it, but I find now that I really enjoy the cycling."